Frauenstraße 9
(the Viktualienmarkt)
80469 Munich, Germany
THE MILAGROS RESTAURANT
David Sterling
With my help, Scott Myers, the owner and the soul of this modern restaurant, Milagros, intended to bring the magic of Mexican cuisine to Germany. He comes from California. I am actually a New Yorker. So both of us are non-Mexicans. And of all things, we decided to open an authentic Mexican restaurant in the heart of Munich? This would be a particularly exceptional challenge, that much was true.
When Scott asked me to help him with his plans for this venture, I was immediately excited and extremely determined to support him with intense vigor. He wanted to export the authentic flavor, the sun and happiness, the “spirit” of his beloved Mexico to the passers-by of the snow-covered Alps—and admittedly, without wanting to risk a huge loss. A terrific idea! At least in theory. But how can this practically operate in a city that otherwise is only familiar with mediocre restaurants? We will probably need a miracle, I thought, and somehow, I got the Spanish word for miracle, milagros, stuck in my head. The perfect name for our purposes and the restaurant!
The first step was deciding on the look and design of the restaurant. To do this, I had to design a kitchen and a menu with at least eighty authentic Mexican dishes. The cooks needed to be trained and the dishes had to be genuine and authentically Mexican. A truly Herculean task, and I thank God that I did not have to stand alone as Scott and his wonderful team always stood by my side.
I needed a real miracle: the right ingredients and the right coworkers. Without authentic ingredients, the food would not taste Mexican. And without cooks who knew the flavors of Mexico, it also would not have worked. Four young cooks from Mexico were brought over right before the opening to share their knowledge with our Munich colleagues, kind of like a cultural exchange. Then Richie Wee took over as the head chef and shared how authentic and real this cuisine tasted with our junior chefs.
We found a lot of our ingredients directly outside our front door at the day food market, one of the biggest, most beautiful, and surely the most abundant in all of Germany. It had almost everything we needed for our menu: vanilla beans, real cocoa beans, aromatic pineapples, a variety of chilies, old tomato varieties, and ripe avocados. Good quality has its price, but only really good products lead to a great flavor experience. This cookbook is an expression of passion and love—for Mexican cuisine, the country of Mexico, and its people. We, with our outside perspective, were more and more astonished every day by this culture. Mexican cuisine always became new and surprising and, in the best way, exotic for us Americans. With this cookbook, you can now cook truly genuine, pure Mexican cuisine at home with these recipes. And if you really want to experience it at the highest level, then you should visit Scott and his team in Milagros in Munich. And maybe Scott, the Milagros restaurant, the miracle, and I can inspire you with our love and passion. At any rate, that would be my great wish.
To the miracle!
David Sterling, Mérida, Yucatán, México
David Sterling was born in Oklahoma City. He studied design and cooking at the University of Michigan and then went to New York, where he lived and worked for the next twenty-five years. In the year 2003, he moved to Mérida, the capital of the Mexican federal state of Yucatán. On this peninsula, he opened Los Dos, the only culinary school in the country dedicated to genuine Yucatán cuisine. Find more information located at: www.los-dos.com
THE CULINARY MEXICAN INFLUENCE
The Origins of Fusion Cooking
Mexico has influenced the European kitchen for a very long time. Everything began with the command of Spanish King Ferdinand, who in the year 1511 instructed his conquistadores to bring aboard ten turkeys to Spain on the way back from Mexico. The birds were so popular in Europe that this Mexican souvenir quickly ousted the pheasant as the favorite bird in banquets. Since the mid-sixteenth century, tomatoes, which Christopher Columbus brought with him from Mexico in 1493, have been grown in the Mediterranean. And how crazy the royal families were for chocolate during the Baroque period—only as a drink, chocolate bars were still unknown—everyone knows that.
It is not at all surprising that so many products originate in Mexico. With 761,606 square miles, Mexico features many different climates and landscapes: deserts in the northern part of the country, mountains all around Mexico City in central Mexico, tropical rainforests in Chiapas, wetlands in the south in the Tabasco region. Historians believe that since 1492, numerous Mexican markets opened due to this diversity. When these products came to Europe, it must have been unbelievably exciting. A Neapolitan cookbook from the year 1692 consists of, for example, a recipe for tomato sauce. Today, one can no longer imagine Italian cuisine without tomatoes. In the eighteenth century, a clever French chocolate maker filed down the chocolate until he had invented the chocolate bon-bon.
It wasn’t a new phenomenon for different cultures to blend in the kitchen. The famous mole poblano sauce is comprised of Mexican chocolate and chili peppers, yet equally as important are Asian spices and raisins, almonds, and sesame seeds, which the Spaniards introduced to the New World. “Creole” is what one calls this fusion of Mexican and European cuisine. It still exists today, just like the kitchens of dozens of Native American tribes, who, to this day, still live in Mexico.
Mexican cuisine is steadily developing and is constantly changing. Enrique Olvera from the world-known restaurant Pujol in Mexico City cooks in such an innovative, ingenious, and contemporary fashion that one could well describe his cooking as “New Mexican.” In the whole English-speaking sphere, professionals and amateurs alike have fallen in love with Mexican cuisine, and the cookbooks by Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless have sold millions of copies. It is no wonder that the Mexican cuisine of UNESCO has been recognized as a World Cultural Heritage site.
BETWEEN THE CARIBBEAN AND THE PACIFIC
The Regional Cuisines of Mexico
Mexico is a huge country with bone-dry deserts and snow-covered mountain ranges. The cuisine is, however, the most sustainable in these coined desert regions. Between the Pacific and the Caribbean, 6,170 miles of desert stretch from the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of California. The unbelievable abundance of fish and seafood stems from the extensive bodies of water, whose use was developed during the centuries of the New and Old worlds. Regionally, there are many different recipes: Ceviche with citrus aromas from Nayarit, Huachinango, or white fish in a rich sauce from Veracruz, prawns in a coat of coconut from Campeche . . . These are only a few examples of the many dishes from the regional cuisines of Mexico, which we have jotted down for you.
The Fiery Mexican Soul
Christopher Columbus brought back many things from his trip to the New World that Europeans had never seen before: potatoes, corn, cocoa beans, and, naturally, chili peppers. There are over two hundred kinds of chili peppers, and more than one hundred of these are indigenous to Mexico. Thus, a very exceptional skill developed when dealing with chili peppers in the Mexican kitchen. They are healthy and produce color, aroma, flavor—and spiciness. Yet spiciness is actually more of a secondary trait. Good Mexican cuisine uses substantially less spices than, say, what we are familiar with at Tex-Mex restaurants or from the Thai kitchen. If you are unsure about the flavoring, simply start with a small dose. You can always make a dish more spicy. Removing spiciness is more difficult (i.e., with potatoes or with diluting a dish).
Ancho: A good four inches long and fairly broad. Red-brown. Somewhat fruity in flavor, sweeter than all other dried chilies. When fresh (and green), these are called Poblanos.
Arból: Around three and a half inches long, red, slender, and curved. Spicy—comparable with cayenne pepper.
Chipotle: Not a type, but rather, a smoked Jalapeño chili pepper. Dark-brown with a smoked aroma that, afterwards, smells sweet. Also produced in canned goods (Chipotle en adobo).
Guajillo: Is medium length and slender with a pointed end. Used when dried and is very spicy.
Habanero: Small and is very dainty looking—like a lantern. Between an orange and green color, independent from the level of ripeness. Blazing hot.
Mulato: At least four inches long and rather narrow. Has a smoky flavor.
Pasilla: A good eight inches long, rather narrow, aromatic, and medium spicy. Dark brown in color.
Serrano: Around one and a half inches long. Green and fades to red and yellow. Often pickled in oil or can be bought in a can. Can be used when fresh or when dried. Spicy.
Spirit of the Gods
Tequila is one of the most misunderstood alcoholic drinks on the face of this planet. Very few people outside of Mexico have drank genuine, real, authentic tequila. When correctly manufactured, tequila is produced from the root of the agave plant and from nothing else. This one hundred percent agave tequila differentiates itself in high quality and is considerably more flavorful than those that are mass produced and made with sugar, flavor strengthener, and preservatives.
There are really only three authentic types of tequila: silver, reposado, and anejo. The silver gets its name from its clear appearance. It does not age in oak barrels like the others, rather, it is drinkable immediately after distillation. A good silver should have a smooth-tasting finish. The reposado is aged in an oak barrel for anywhere between six and nine months. Then it acquires a golden color, is smooth in the finish, and tastes sweet and tangy on the tongue. The anejo is stored in a barrel for one to two years and should be drunk like a good whiskey or cognac. Anejos are unbelievably smooth in the finish and have a huge, flavorful complexity—tangy, herbal, and sometimes reminiscent of honey.
Whoever drinks good tequila can attest that he is revitalized through the enjoyment of it, the spirit of the gods. Because only tequila is manufactured from a plant, which can first only be harvested after twenty years, the Mexican sun and earth has been carrying a true spirit of the gods for decades!
CHOCOLATE
The Drink of Kings
Like all Aztec rulers before him, King Moctezuma lived and feasted famously—he was the undisputed God-King of Mexico—and in a befitting manner. Every day, his staff prepared around three hundred dishes, reserved only for him. The leftover budget was used towards another thousand dishes. At the end of every meal, the God-King expressed his power with a ritual: he drank hot chocolate, because at the time, cocoa beans were considered the gold of the Aztecs and a symbol for power and wealth. Pulverized, dissolved in hot water, sweetened with honey, and beaten until frothy, this gold of the Aztec subjects became the drink of kings.
LONG LIVE THE WOMAN!
Powerful Women in the Kitchen
It probably seems contradictory that a feminist movement developed from the calculated place of the kitchen in an otherwise completely male-dominated culture. Yet women still did not have much of a say in anything, so the kitchen was their kingdom—here, they enforced their rules; here, they could exchange ideas with each other. When important topics had to be discussed, even if only about the academic achievement of their children or questions about the political situation, the women went to the kitchen to discuss such topics.
A figurehead of the women‘s movement “from the kitchen,” was the mystic, poet, and nun, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz. She lived in the seventeenth century, but was ahead of the times in all sorts of things. For instance, she masterfully connected potential “unwomanly” topics with cooking. “I could tell you all something about the secrets of nature, which I discovered with cooking,” she wrote, and then went on about the laws of chemistry. She is famous for her quote, “If Aristotle had cooked, then he would have written a whole lot more!” Unfortunately, it was unavoidable that the writings of Sor Juana vom Bischof von Puebla were censored as “scientific research that cannot be taken with a straight face.” At the end of the nineteenth century, there was an initial increase of cookbooks about authentic Mexican dishes, such as tamales or chiles en nogada, within the market; these were symbolic for the growing Mexican self-awareness during the times of revolution. Authentic recipes served as a declaration of war on the political caste of men in the country—and to say that cooking would be a bore!
BITTERSWEET
Sex in the Kitchen
The conquering of Mexico and the subsequent authority of the Catholic Church did not change the basic daily life of Mexicans, but new standards and rules—how one should properly and morally live, think, and feel—developed. The emotional and sexual freedoms of the Mexican tribes were sinful in the eyes of the Catholic Church and were rigorously suppressed.
However, it is truly surprising that within these tribes, which already were the first to have given up on the custom of human sacrifice, primal needs were the only ones that were difficult to get rid of, especially since the Spanish conquerors really did not provide any good role models, and the advantage of their powers were sometimes quite brutally exploited.
Mexicans like to think that cooking and eating is an important channel of emotions. The successful novel, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, is a wonderful and lively exaggeration of this idea. The hero of the novel, Tita, is not allowed to marry the love of her life, Pedro, because she must fulfill her duty as the youngest daughter and take care of her widowed mother. To be at least near Tita, Pedro decides to marry her older sister. A hot-blooded chef, Tita unleashes her feelings in the kitchen, and with her food, everyone experiences what she feels. Her dishes make people break out in tears, or experience sexual ecstasy. Poor Pedro must experience how much Tita is suffering through his own body. At least his own suffering is sweetened through the costly creations of his beloved Tita. Her passion for Pedro burns so hot, she literally burns the house to the ground. Chilies are not the only thing that are hot and spicy in the Mexican kitchen!
In the Mexican kitchen, tomatoes, chili peppers, and garlic are frequently browned. In this process, no fat or grease is used, and the browning is also not a fermenting process, but rather, its purpose is to provide more flavor and color. Therefore, it is important that with garlic, one does not use too much heat. Garlic that is burned tastes bitter and can ruin an entire dish. So here it goes:
Take the washed tomato and brown both sides for a few minutes on medium heat until it turns a really dark color, but is not yet burned, nor has it gone soft. The tomato should still be firm on the inside. If the tomato browns longer than this, it will cook through and become soft; and it won’t be easy to scrape out the seeds. [Photos 1+2]
Garlic should be browned in the husk because it protects it from burning. For best results, imagine that the garlic is milk. It will bubble over and burn if no one is watching . . . [Photo 3]
Chili peppers should also not be burned, otherwise, they will have a bitter and sour aftertaste. Pack browned chili peppers in a plastic bag and leave them to sweat for ten minutes. Then let the skin peel back lightly on its own. [Photo 4]
Kitchen gloves and chili peppers belong together. If you have ever forgotten that you had peeled chilies, and ten minutes later, accidentally touched your eyes (with really hot chilies, it is enough to just let them touch the skin), then you know the reason for this. It burns like hell.
1. Up to eighty percent of the spiciness of chili peppers is hidden within the seeds and the white membrane. If one likes the aroma of the chili, but not the spiciness or cannot tolerate it, then one can adjust the level of spiciness by removing both of these.
2. As a rule of thumb: the smaller the chili pepper, the spicier it is. Slice the chili lengthwise, then from the stalk, pry open and fold back. Leave only the seeds, and with a spoon, scrape out the white membrane.
3. Also, if chili peppers are browned, this does not mean that any of the spiciness has been taken away during the process. The same goes for freezing chili peppers. Even after this, they are still as spicy as they were when you first got them. At least your active ingredient, Capsaicin, is used in pepper spray. Thus you should always work with kitchen gloves and afterwards, you should also clean your cutting board with hot water and dish soap, while wearing your kitchen gloves.
4. The smaller the chili, the finer it should be cut, since this then distributes its spiciness equally throughout the dish.
HOW TO HANDLE THE SPICINESS OF CHILIES
The browning and subsequent soaking of chilies is an alternative method to get rid of their spiciness. They also come in many different types of flavors: fruity, chocolaty, peppery . . . always choose fresh chilies with smooth, solid surfaces.
1. Toast the chilies in a pan at mid-temperature until they show color and develop an aroma. If you sniff them, they will smell spicy.
2. Place the toasted chilies in a heat-resistant bowl and fill with hot water. Let them steep until the water cools down to a lukewarm temperature.
3. The soaked chilies will only be squeezed through a strainer. This works best with a wooden spoon. Use a fine-mesh strainer so that the seeds stay within the strainer. Squeeze well so that you may extract as much pulp as possible.
4. Simmer the chili pulp in a pan with some type of grease. This will change the color and darken them. The aroma is intense, but it is no longer as spicy as it was before.
Guacamole is a dip, a sauce, a topping, and a side dish, and there is really no one who does not like it. What are important for a delicious guacamole are, above all other things, avocados. There are almost five hundred different kinds of avocados, and some are not even as big as an apricot; there are some that are round, pear-shaped, and elongated. In this part of the world, the dark, nubby Hass avocado came out on top—and for good reason, since its flavor is very aromatic.
1. A couple of ingredients always belong in a guacamole: besides avocados, you will need chilies, lime juice, and salt. Finely minced tomatoes, cilantro, or scallions also match very well with guacamole.
2. One does not achieve the best consistency with a food processor or with a blender. The guacamole will then become too smooth, and every additional ingredient will also become too runny. For the best results (and most typical, at that), guacamole should be mashed in a large mortar with a pestle.
3. The pestle from the mortar prevents the unattractive discoloration of the guacamole. You can also quietly prepare this dip in advance. Remove the pestle, but only right before serving. The pestle tip goes for all dishes involving avocados.
4. As long as no oxygen comes in contact with the guacamole, it retains its appetizing green color. Thus you must press kitchen wrap directly on top of the guacamole’s surface, so that it clings tightly, and do not stretch the kitchen wrap over it, since this will collect oxygen underneath the guacamole, and the appetizing light-green will turn into a gray-brown sludge.
Tortillas are unbelievably diverse. They can be served on their own, tightly rolled, loosely rolled, or stacked on top of each other. Traditionally, the tortilla is made from cornmeal. Wheat flour was first brought to the country by European conquerors. From then on, wheat farming was funded because with this flour, hosts would bake for the Catholic supper.
1. So here is the easiest way: Open cornmeal tortillas are served with diverse side dishes. You can then roll them together yourself. These small cornmeal tortillas are called tacos and are served in special concession stands, otherwise known as “taquerias.”
2. A tortilla made from wheat flour that contains a saturated filling, which is also served rolled, is known as a burrito. Breakfast burritos with egg, meat, pickled onions, and guacamole are terrific!
3. Wheat flour tortillas that are filled with cheese and then baked until the cheese melts are called quesadillas. Before serving, they are divided into triangles and can be eaten with your hands.
4. Cornmeal tortillas that are quickly fried in hot grease, then dried, stacked on top of one another, and divided into six parts are called “tortilla chips,” which are also known as totopos.
TAMALES - THE SUPREME DISCIPLINE
Tamales were only made for festivities because they were really elaborate to prepare. One could also say that Mexicans make a party out of the preparation of tamales, in which friends and family participate. You can find a recipe for the filling on page 125.
1. Tamales are steamed in a dried corn husk. Of course this also works with aluminum foil, and similarly, like with cooking in a banana leaf, the aroma carries over into the filling. It has a fine, smoky flavor.
2. Corn has quite a number of different colors, from white, over to a mellow yellow, even to a light-blue.
3. Take a soaked corn husk in your hand, thinly brush the rims with filling, and then spoon some more in the middle. Do not overfill because the filling will rise during steaming. Place the sides loosely on top of one another and fold over the ends.
4. Seal the tamales with some kitchen yarn or with a strip of corn husk. The seal must be so tight that the tamal (this is the singular form) does not open, but also not so tight that there is still room for the rising filling when steaming.
